


The most wonderful time of the year

by BreakMyPride17



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-28
Updated: 2018-05-05
Packaged: 2019-04-29 06:26:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14466906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BreakMyPride17/pseuds/BreakMyPride17
Summary: Mary's innocent idea of secret Santa backfires in more ways than one.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I know it's late April but I really wanted to write a Christmas fic, don't judge me.

Christmas in Riverdale was always a big deal. Everyone came together, united by the holidays. FP’s friend group had been divided for a while and he accepted that he was partly to blame for that. Him and Alice’s break up was messier than it should have been and they hadn’t really spoken since, only exchanged common courtesies. They group had divided into: FP, Fred and Mary vs Alice, Hermione and Hal. Mary, forever the diplomat, persuaded the group to get together over Christmas.   
“There’s no sense in all this fighting,” she had said to FP “and you didn’t hear this from me but Alice really wants to make up with you. She said she regrets how you two left things.”  
FP hadn’t responded verbally to that, he only rolled his eyes.   
Mary scowled at him “you’re the only problem here FP, I’m sorry if that sounds blunt but it’s the truth. Everyone else wants to make the effort, even Hal.”  
FP stared down at his shoes. Mary had been his rock through this whole thing, acting as counsellor and friend. He knew she was right, but that didn’t mean he was happy about it.  
“She broke my heart Mary.”  
Her eyes softened as she remembered all that he had gone through. The breakup hadn’t been mutual, Alice had wanted to be with Hal so she left FP. The whole situation never made much sense to anyone, Alice and FP were the happiest couple in the school and without a doubt the cutest. They rarely had problems and when they did they were resolved quickly.  
But then Alice had gone away for a few months, she just up and left without saying a word to anyone. She came back a totally new person, having allegedly spent time with her aunt in Texas. She broke up with FP two days after her return. This had been six months ago.   
“I know FP, but it hasn’t been easy for her either, you completely iced her out.”  
FP was exasperated “what was I supposed to do? Act like I was fine?”  
Mary shook her head “look, I’m not getting into this right now. Will you do it or not?”  
“Do what?”  
Mary smiled “secret Santa.”  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
The whole gang gathered in the common room at school, for the first time in six months. It had been awkward for a while, especially since Hal and Alice weren’t leaving much room for Jesus, the latter was sitting on Hal’s lap due to lack of seating. Mary and Fred kept looking anxiously at FP, waiting for him to cause a scene and knock Hal out. The only one who was acting normally was Hermione, due to the fact that she had outgrown high school drama. Apparently.   
Mary cleared her throat “so, since it’s Christmas time I felt it was only right that we keep up our annual tradition of secret Santa. We have all been fighting for long enough and it’s time to move on.”  
FP and Alice made eye contact for a brief moment before FP quickly averted his gaze. Alice felt a pang in her chest as she saw him grip the arm of his chair so tight that his knuckles were white. These last few months of school were not going to be easy if they were forced to spend time together.   
Hal spoke up “I agree Mary, this rift has been left unaddressed for too long. It’s time we leave the past in the past.”  
FP wasn’t violent by nature but in that moment he would have happily fed Hal Cooper to a pack of rabid coyotes who hadn’t seen a meal in three decades, taken his rotten corpse, burned it and then fed his charred remains to another group of coyotes.   
Alice at least had the decency to look embarrassed by Hal’s comment.  
It took all of Mary’s willpower not to snap at Hal, she had to play peacemaker here so that ruled out favouritism.  
“Agreed Hal. So, let’s put our names in a hat.”  
Fred spoke up “uh Mare, we don’t have a hat.”  
“I’m sure we can find one Fred, a lot of people wear them.”  
Hermione frowned “FP is literally wearing a baseball cap just use that.”  
FP jolted at the sound of his name. He was still thinking about wild dogs and Harold the Ham.  
“Huh?”  
Hermione rolled her eyes at him “your hat, FP. Give it to Mary.”  
“Oh, sorry.”   
He took his hat off and handed it to Fred who handed it to Mary.   
Mary beamed “okay then, we just need a pen and some paper.”  
Alice pulled a page out from one of her notebooks and Hermione produced a pen from her handbag.   
The paper was ripped up and distributed and the pen was passed around. When Alice had finished writing her name the only person who hadn’t used the pen yet was FP. He looked at her, not sure if he should go over and take it or if he should wait for her to walk over and give it to him. She was having the same problem.  
To make an awkward situation worse, they both stood up at the same time. Everyone was silent, even Hal sensed the tension. Hermione was questioning if she had given up on high school drama too soon, because this was riveting.  
Alice held the pen out to him and he took it from her. Their hands briefly touched during the exchange.   
“Thanks” he whispered, he hadn’t meant for it to come out like that. He hadn’t meant for a lot of things to happen.  
“No problem.”  
They both sat down and FP quickly wrote his name and handed it to Mary.  
She placed all the names in and passed the hat around.   
Everyone picked out a name as if they were playing a game of poker, showing no emotion whatsoever. When FP’s hat was passed back to him there was only one name left in it. Alice. Why was fate so cruel?  
He put his hat back on and was barely listening to Mary’s speech about not going over the budget of $30. What the hell was he supposed to get Alice? Maybe Fred would swap with him.   
The bell rang for class and the six of them went in different directions towards their respective classes.   
FP ran after Fred, desperately trying to catch him before Algebra.   
“Dude, I need you to swap with me!”  
Fred shook his head “sorry man, I promised Mare I wouldn’t say who I have. It’s really important to her that this goes well.”  
“Fred, I can guarantee you that this whole thing will go to shit if I keep my person.”  
“You got Alice didn’t you?”  
FP remained silent, which was enough for Fred.  
Fred sighed and put his hand on FP’s shoulder  
“I can’t help you, man. I got Hal.”  
FP groaned  
“I knew this would happen, I fucking knew it. Who invented secret Santa anyway? It’s so dumb!”  
“Don’t let Mary hear you say that.”  
“What am I supposed to get her? What does she even like now? She’s a completely different person than the Alice I knew.”  
Fred shrugged “you literally couldn’t be asking a more useless person.”  
FP rolled his eyes and started to walk into class.


	2. chapter 2

Fred dragged FP to yet another store. They must have been to at least 24 in the space of an hour and neither of them had bought a damn thing. Everywhere was packed and this only made Fred more anxious.   
“What if there’s nothing left in the shops? What if I have to make Hal like…a clock or something?”  
FP laughed as he imagined Hal’s reaction to a wooden clock. The idiot probably wouldn't know what it was for.  
“Stop laughing man, this is serious. Actually, it’s more than serious for you. You have to get Alice something good.”  
This statement soured FP’s mood considerably “I know, but I can’t get her something too good either. It has to be casual yet…” he struggled to find the word. What did it have to be? Romantic? Sophisticated? Bigger than a house?   
“Alice?” Fred offered.   
FP nodded “yeah it has to be Alice.”  
But FP didn’t know her anymore. There had been a time when he was certain that he knew her better than anyone else on the earth. How wrong he’d been.   
He must have looked deep in thought because Fred put a hand on is shoulder and gave him a soft shake  
“You good?”  
FP needed a change of subject “where’s Mary? I thought you two would shop together, isn’t that what married couples do this time of year?”  
“She’s with Hermione and Alice, I think she’s sick of us to be honest.”  
“Well I can’t say I blame her, we can’t even buy a stupid secret Santa gift.”  
Fred smiled half-heartedly and began walking to the gifts and hobbies section of the store.  
FP frowned and sped after him “what’s wrong? Did something happen with Mary?”  
Fred sighed and put down a candle that was apparently ‘unicorn scented.’  
“No, that’s the problem.”  
“I’m confused, use your words better.”  
“She’s like…not, you know..”  
“Spit it out Fred.”  
“We aren’t…doing anything”  
FP understood now “anything? Or it?”  
Fred blushed and looked at the ground “We’re doing stuff but she says she’s not ready to do ‘it.’  
FP shrugged “well that’s her call, you can't force her.”  
“I’m not forcing her! I haven’t put any pressure on her at all!”  
“So what’s the problem then?”  
“I’m going to sound like a dick if I say it.”  
“You want to break up with her don’t you?”  
Fred sighed “I don’t want to, but I feel like I have to.”  
FP remained silent and cursed his friends’ stupidity, how could one person be so bright but so thick at the same time? Mary and Fred had been going out for a whole year. FP didn’t know a better suited couple: they never got sick of each other, they rarely fought and (superficial reason) they looked damn good together. Fred was really going to throw this away so he could have meaningless sex with some drunk randomer?  
“Hello? Earth to Forsythe? Give me some feedback here.”  
“I think you’re an idiot. Granted, I think you’re an idiot the majority of the time- but this is a new level of idiocy that I’d hoped you’d never reach.”  
Fred sighed “You aren’t in my position, you can’t understand.”  
“Well maybe because I’m not in your position I understand better than you. You’d be making a huge mistake ending things with her.”  
“Ending things with whom?”  
Fred and FP turned to face a stony eyed Alice Smith who had her arms crossed and a solitary eyebrow raised. FP used to call this her ‘Bad Cop stare down.’ Now he just called it scary.  
“Hey Alice, how’s it hanging?”  
It seemed impossible, but her eyebrow raised further “Don’t ‘hey Alice, how’s it hanging?’ me Fred Andrews. Were you talking about Mary?”   
“I talk about Mary a lot Alice, she’s kind of my girlfriend.”  
“Do you think that I was born yesterday? Are you going to break up with her?”  
FP backed away slowly from this toxic situation, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire (as he had many times with these two). He opted to go to a more soothing area: the toy section.  
When Fred saw that FP was out of sight, he decided to play his trump card  
“I’d be careful what you tell Mary, Alice. I wouldn’t want to slip a certain secret to FP.”  
Alice’s eyes darkened “you wouldn’t.”  
Fred sighed “you’re right, I probably wouldn’t. But do you want to take that chance?”  
Alice stiffened and looked over at FP, who was engaged in battle with a stretchy toy in the form of Captain America. A wave of guilt washed over her. He’d probably be in that same section right now, for a completely different reason, if she’d told him the truth a few months ago. There’s no way he would have let the baby be put up for adoption. That had been the main reason she didn’t tell him.   
“I know you Fred, you couldn’t hurt him like that.”  
Fred shrugged and walked away towards the toy section, leaving Alice standing on her own in the middle of the aisle. She’s be damned if she was going to let Fred Andrews get the better of her, and Mary deserved better than him anyway.  
She marched outside where Hermione and Mary were waiting, weighed down by the bags they were carrying. Hermione gave her an odd look  
“That didn’t take very long.”  
“I ran into Fred and FP.”  
Mary perked up “Fred’s in there? Oh good, I wanted to ask him abou-“  
“Mary, don’t go in there. Please.”  
Mary furrowed her brows “what? Why?”  
Alice shook her head “I overheard him saying that-“  
She stopped, not sure if she should continue talking. Mary deserved better than Fred, in her opinion, but she didn’t deserve to get hurt like this.  
Mary squinted her eyes “what did he say?”  
Alice breathed out and thought, fuck it  
“I heard him saying that he wants to break up with you.”

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
The group’s next secret Santa meeting was even more awkward than the first, a feat that seemed impossible, but never say never-especially in Riverdale. Mary had organised that they all meet in the common room after lunch to evaluate their progress, Christmas was just around the corner after all.  
The two couches were split into two armed camps: the boys versus the girls. FP was disgusted that he had to sit next to Hal Chicken-Coop(er) but the girls had formed some kind of mafia-type murder squad. After the Fred/Mary breakup they had rarely been apart, they banded together in support, which gave Alice an excuse to ignore Hal for a while. Naturally Hal had come to Fred and FP with his tail between his legs, begging for companionship. Fred took pity on him.   
Mary cleared her throat and locked eyes with FP, refusing to make eye contact with Fred  
“So, secret Santa is going ahead next week as planned, we’re here to make sure that everyone has their gifts purchased and by everyone we mean you three.”  
She glared at the three boys, as if they’d all personally offended her.  
Hal moved to speak but FP beat him to it “Of course we all have our gifts bought, right boys?”  
The two on either side of him nodded their heads quickly in unison, as a negative response would most likely be punishable by death.   
Hermione looked unimpressed “well done, the male species is truly taking steps forward.”  
Hal sniggered “more like taking steps backwards.”  
No one laughed.  
FP, in an attempt to clean up Hal’s misogynistic mess, asked an innocent question   
“Where are we actually exchanging gifts?”  
Mary shrugged   
“Whoever’s house has no parents in it.”  
That ruled out basically everyone except FP and Alice. FP lived on his own in a trailer and Alice’s dad was always away for work. What work he did exactly, no one knew.  
They looked awkwardly at each other. Alice took the plunge and spoke first  
“I don’t mind hosting it, I suppose. I mean if you want to you can-“  
“No, no it’s fine- um, the trailer probably couldn’t hold everyone anyways.”  
He said that without a hint of embarrassment in his voice, something Alice had always admired about him. He didn’t care that he was from the Southside or that he lived in a cramped, dusty trailer in Sunnyside. On the contrary, he was proud of it. That was something Alice could never manage.   
“Okay, my place it is then.”  
Hermione stood up and dusted off her skirt, for no apparent reason   
“Are we done here? There’s too much teenage angst in this room for me, and testosterone.”  
Fred muttered an aside to FP “what does she think Christmas in going to be like?”  
He managed to choke down his laugh and maintain his poker face, but Hal, being the idiot that he was, burst out laughing after hearing the comment. This was definitely going on FP’s ever growing list of reasons why they should put Hal down. He’d personally drive him to the vet, he might even get a little patch in the graveyard and put a wreath on it in his memory. 'To Ham' the card would read 'a specific kind of idiot.'  
Alice gave him a cold stare  
“What was that Hal?”  
Hal smiled back at her, cool as you like  
“Nothing babe, just hanging out over here.”  
Alice rolled her eyes and herded the other two out of the room like a shepard.   
FP looked at Fred, then at Hal, then back at Fred again. It seemed as if there was tension between all six of them now. How had things escalated so quickly? And how on earth were they supposed survive the secret Santa exchange from hell?


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this seems a bit rushed xD

Riverdale hadn’t seen snow for a few months, which was odd considering the frequent snowstorms that occurred. The heavens had decided to open, however, on the most anticipated night of the year.  
It was Christmas Eve a.k.a the night of the dreaded gift exchange. FP wasn’t sure why the group was still pretending to be one big happy family- the divide was so painfully obvious. Himself and Fred were being iced out and FP had to admit that he didn’t really think this was fair. The group had originally been him, Fred and Alice. Eventually Mary came along and then Hermione. Hal was obviously the latest arrival. He missed the days where it was just the three of them, before things had gotten complicated.   
As FP trudged along through the snow on the way to Alice’s he couldn’t help reminiscing about the good times they’d had together. Dinners at Pop’s, drinking in the Wyrm, jamming in Fred’s garage (Alice had played bass and was the unofficial third member of the Fredhead’s). And then FP had to go ruin it by driving Alice away. He didn’t know exactly what it is he had done to upset her so much, but it was obviously bad- especially since Fred never spoke about it. Every time he speculated about what it was that he’d done to her Fred would just shake his head and say “I don’t know man, just drop it.”   
He sighed and walked faster, the cold was biting him and he could feel his feet becoming numb. He stopped at Alice’s front door, braced himself and knocked lightly. He noticed how his breath made little clouds in the air and decided to try to make O’s with it. He was in the middle of one when Alice opened the door.  
She raised her eyebrow at him and he grinned at her “Merry Christmas?”  
“Did you seriously wear your Serpent jacket to this?”  
“It keeps me honest.”  
She bit back her laughter and stood back so he could enter.   
He looked around at the decorations. She lived in a fairly shabby house, just before the border between the North and the Southside. To her dismay she was on the wrong side of the border. Regardless of the size of the house, she and her dad tried to make it as much of a home as possible. They really went all out with the decorations this year and FP marvelled at how she had somehow managed to make the house smell like Christmas.   
“You’re the first one here, the others should arrive on soon.”  
FP sat down on the couch in her living room, right next to the sparkling Christmas tree.  
“Cool.”  
There was an awkward tension between them that neither addressed. Alice busied herself with sweeping the hallway while FP began attacking the twelve pack of beer he had brought. When she wasn’t looking he would stare at her intently, drinking in her appearance. He missed her so much, this whole ordeal was only making things harder for him. He wanted to try to be her friend, it would be better than this, this nothingness. But he hadn’t a clue what to say to her, there was always a huge elephant in the room when they were together.   
FP was almost finished his second can by the time Fred arrived. Hermione soon followed, along with Hal. Mary was the last to arrive which was odd seeing as she was the one who had advocated for this whole thing.   
The group gathered around the little coffee table in the sitting room. Everyone was drinking now, although FP had a head start on them all, something that made Fred anxious. Drunk FP was fun but he almost always got himself in trouble.   
“How’re we gonna do this?” Hal questioned.  
Mary frowned at him “Haven’t you ever done secret Santa before?”  
“It’s not really a tradition in my house.”  
Mary rolled her eyes and began explaining to Hal how to hand a present to another human being when Hermione cut across her  
“Actually Mary I think we should do if a different way.”  
She gritted her teeth “Really Hermione? And what way would that be?”  
Hermione shrugged “I just think that with all the recent drama that we should do this thing anonymously. Everyone should put their person’s name on their gift and put it in a bag and then one person should hand them out.”  
Alice chirped up at this “That sounds like a good plan, people won’t be forced to react on the spot and stuff.”  
Mary forced a smile. She had been the one to organise this whole thing and now Hermione was taking control of it. Figures.   
“Won’t everyone see who’s writing who’s name?”  
“We’ll turn around I suppose.”  
Mary sighed, defeated. This night had only started and tensions were already sky high, not to mention that her and Fred hadn’t even looked at each other. He’d been focusing all his attention on Hermione.   
The group did as they were told and wrote down their person’s name on their gift and chucked it into a big Santa sack that Alice had somehow had lying around the house. Go figure.   
FP was now halfway through his twelve pack (the others were drinking wine which he’d never had much time for). He wasn’t drunk but he was well on his way. He didn’t think he’d want to remember this night.   
The bag was passed around and everyone took out the gift with their name on it. It was pretty anti-climactic considering all the effort that had been put into the occasion. Hal received a wooden clock (Fred almost died when he saw Hal’s reaction), Fred got a book titled “Business For Dummies”, Hermione’s gift was a designer handbag (her person had gone well over budget) and Mary got a charm bracelet. Alice and FP were the only two left to open their presents, which they did at the same time.  
Alice smiled when she saw what FP had obviously bought for her: a snow globe. She knew it was him because he had broken her favourite one last Christmas by accident and he hadn’t stopped apologising about it for two months.  
FP laughed out loud when he opened his. It was a twelve pack of the exact same beer he was currently drinking. God did exist after all.   
After everyone had cleaned up the wrapping paper they all sat down in front of the TV and turned on a Christmas movie. The tension had died down quite a bit due to the alcohol in everyone’s system. It almost felt like old times; Fred cracked jokes, Hermione complained, Mary argued. Their dysfunctional family was finally starting to gel again.   
After a few minutes Alice stood up to make some popcorn. This statement was met with cheers from everyone, drunk teenagers are easily pleased. Alice hadn’t had a lot to drink: only two glasses of white wine. She was usually the designated mom anyway.  
While waiting for the popcorn to cook she examined the snow globe FP had got her. It was beautifully crafted, every detail was meticulously intricate. She much preferred this one to her old one.   
“Hi” a voice muttered from behind her.  
She turned and saw FP walking into the kitchen, beer in hand.  
“Oh, hey”  
She gestured at the beer in his hand   
“Somebody knows you pretty well.”  
He laughed “what did you get?”  
She handed the snow globe to him with a smile.  
He twisted the winding key until Christmas music started to spill out of it. He smiled sadly at it.  
Alice tried to maintain the smile on her face “are you alright?”  
He nodded and then hesitated “we don’t talk much anymore.” He searched her face for a reaction “I never know what to say.”  
The pain in his eyes was too much for Alice to bare so she turned back around to tend to the popcorn “well we should fix that.”  
She busied herself with putting the popcorn into bowls, knowing that if she saw his face she’d tell him everything that happened.   
He walked closer to her and rubbed his hand lightly up and down her shoulder.  
“I miss you, Alice” he whispered hoarsely.   
She turned to face him “um, okay. I’m going to take a wild guess here: you’ve been drinking.”  
He took a step away from her and shrugged “So?”  
“So, maybe we should talk about this some other time?”  
He frowned at her “you don’t look happy.”  
She stared at him for a few seconds before saying “I’m happy.”  
He nodded “That’s- that’s good. I want you to be happy, I’m just saying that if you’re not -“  
She took a step towards him “We should go back inside.”  
He sighed “I made mistakes a lot- a lot of mistakes-“  
“Don’t make another one.”  
She grabbed the bowls of popcorn and breezed past him into the sitting room. She thought she would cry. He blamed himself for what happened between them. It must have been eating away at him, the not knowing. He didn’t deserve this.   
FP stood in the kitchen for another while drinking the remainder of his beer. He stared out at the night sky through the kitchen window, praying for the ache in his chest to go away. Him and Alice were supposed to end up together, that’s the way it was meant to be. A life without Alice Smith is not one FP had planned.   
He laughed as he threw his can in the trash “Merry fucking Christmas.”


End file.
